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Gabriel Vach has led the Ceramic Design studio at the Sutnar Faculty in Pilsen since 2012. He compares his graduates to stars — each one must first be encouraged not to be afraid to shine, and then watched as they travel along their own trajectory. But stars easily scatter and drift out of sight. This didn't sit well with him. He wanted to keep track of his graduates — his lonely stars (Étoiles solitaires) — to connect them and keep their work visible. He came up with the idea of creating a platform that would do just that. His exhibition project has been a success and continues to grow. At the Ladislav Sutnar Gallery (LSG) in Pilsen, current students now exhibit alongside graduates — representing the youngest blood (das jüngste Blut). Gabriel Vach spoke about the exhibitors, the exhibition, and its unusual title in an interview for INFO.zcu.

What exactly led to the organization of the exhibition Étoiles solitaires & das jüngste Blut?

I suggested to graduates I kept running into that it would be great to build on our joint degree show exhibitions, and to my surprise, enough people came forward and agreed to the idea. A trial run took place last year at Viadukt Karlín, where only graduates were allowed to exhibit. That showed the project was viable. An Instagram profile, @etoiles_solitaires_, was created and should, in the future, serve as a platform for following updates from individual artists and staying informed about their projects. I see the absence of such a platform as a kind of debt we owe. And through this exhibition, I can also say, "look, this is good work," and someone might hear me... or rather, see it.

And what about the bilingual title? Why French and German specifically?

French, I think, holds a certain mystery for many people - at least for those who don't speak it. The title of the Karlín exhibition, which featured only graduates, was Étoiles solitaires - lonely stars. For the current exhibition's title, we needed to introduce another element, since the show at LSG also includes works by students. My immediate inspiration was the song Bergheim by the Spanish artist Rosalía, in which she combines several languages, and German sounds great in it. But the real reason German makes sense in the title is that the major porcelain manufacturers in what was then Czechoslovakia were in German hands during the interwar period. And to this day, when we talk about certain craft matters related to porcelain, we still use German loanwords. You can read that into the title - or not. I enjoy that ambiguity.

How many of your studio's graduates will be presenting their work at the exhibition?

A total of 27 artists are exhibiting, including 6 current students. We selected the works on display with the condition that they be no more than three years old, including diploma projects. For the students, the work comes from the last four semesters. So the show largely features more recent pieces by graduates who have passed through the studio over the past ten years. There are also a few works created specifically for this occasion.

Each artist is showing just one object or set - isn't that a little harsh?

It is harsh, and I make no claim that the installation is comprehensive - but rather that the viewer has the opportunity to look at the work of a specific individual. It is a survey exhibition.

For the exhibiting artists, you are not only the curator but also their current or former teacher. Did you set them a theme for this exhibition?

I wanted to offer a space where students and graduates could present their current work, without constraining them any further. What connects them is simply that they all passed through the Ceramic Design studio at the Sutnar Faculty. Not all of the exhibiting artists have met each other yet, so I also see the exhibition project as an opportunity to bring them together. I hope they will get to know each other better, too.

Are you planning further group exhibitions?

Once the Étoiles solitaires & das jüngste Blut exhibition at the Ladislav Sutnar Gallery closes, part of the show will travel to the Křehký Mikulov festival (29–31 May 2026). They selected us based on last year's exhibition in Karlín. And right now — until 19 April — you can also visit the exhibition Ze starého nový (From Old to New) at the West Bohemian Museum. Students from our studio worked with selected historical artifacts from the museum's collections. First, as an exercise, they tried to produce exact replicas of each piece, and then they designed their own objects inspired by that experience and process.

Could you introduce some of the specific projects visitors will see at the exhibition?

In the show, you will find, for example, works by Nonna Lorenz, who created an entirely new piece both for the Karlín exhibition and for the LSG show. Nonna has been exhibiting at Designblok for several years, always with something new. Her work appears, at first glance, almost disarmingly pleasing - light and gently humorous. But through it, she often comments on contemporary phenomena that are anything but positive. She can be cynical, sometimes it even stings, but it is always fun.

Jirka Žežula is a student who came to us from CTU and, after completing his master's degree, moved to Berlin. Upon returning, he co-founded Hlinotéka, an independent ceramics workshop that has become a long-running project in Prague. He makes things with a very distinct aesthetic sensibility. In one vein, he builds on his diploma project, where he experimented with materials to create what might be called artificial rocks, which he then machined. His other vein is constructively "stubborn" - he prescribes very precise geometric forms to the clay and then watches what the material does with his idea.

I could go on like this about each of the exhibiting artists, but there probably isn't space for that here - so: come to the exhibition!

Étoiles solitaires & das jüngste Blut is on display at the Ladislav Sutnar Gallery in Pilsen until 23 May.